The White Hero
by starlitSKYx
Summary: After failing to kill Dumbledore, Draco escapes Voldemort to the Unova region and unwittingly becomes a pokémon trainer in order to find the mysterious being that seems to have summoned him.
1. The Dream & A Familiar Face

**THE WHITE HERO**

**Summary:** After failing to kill Dumbledore, Draco escapes Voldemort to the Unova region and unwittingly becomes a pokémon trainer in order to find the mysterious being that seems to have summoned him.

**A/N:** Rated T to be safe for later chapters, but most of the story will be lighthearted and fun. Canon-compliant up to the end of _Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Princ_e. Although the main setting is Unova, I have every intention of throwing in older pokémon whenever I feel like it. This story contains game characters only, but I may borrow ideas from the anime.

**Warning: This story loosely follows the plot of Pokemon Black/White and will contain major spoilers.**

* * *

**Prologue: The Dream**

_I've been waiting for you…_

Draco did not know this place. It was pure white all around him, as far as his eyes could see. The voice that spoke to him seemed to emanate from his surroundings; he was sure he had never heard it before, but somehow it felt familiar to him.

_You're afraid, aren't you? You do not wish to wake up._

So he was asleep, if the voice was telling the truth, and he was sure that it was. But if this was a dream, then why did it feel so real?

"I'm afraid he'll kill me if I face him. He said he would if I failed my mission…"

_The one you fear will not find you here. I can use my remaining power to bring you here, if you wish._

"Where is 'here'? What are you talking about?"

_You shall see…_

A square window suddenly appeared in front of him, apparently floating in mid-air. Pictured through the window was a pixelated old man wearing a white lab coat and reading from a book. Directly below the man, there was a rectangular frame, and within the frame, words began to appear. As the words appeared, they were read aloud by a different voice, which logically must belong to the old man. "Hello there!" it said. "Welcome to the world of POKéMON! My name is OAK! People call me the POKéMON PROF!"

The old man disappeared from the window and was replaced by a pixelated depiction of a four-legged, large-eared horned creature. Oak's voice continued, "This world is inhabited by creatures called POKéMON! For some people, POKéMON are pets. Others use them for fights. Myself… I study POKéMON as a profession."

This voice was strangely monotone, almost robotic-sounding. It unnerved him a little, but not so much as the things it was saying. What were these pokémon that people used for fights? Were they more powerful than the Dark Lord?

The creature vanished from the window and Oak reappeared. When he spoke again, the text in the box did not change and his voice lost its robotic sound. He said, "_This is not a dream, Draco Malfoy_."

Suddenly, Draco understood that Oak was a real person; the image in the window was only a representation of him, and these pokémon—they had to be real too.

"Right now, you are travelling between two different universes—your own world, and the world I just described to you," Oak explained. "You will arrive in a place called Unova. Listen carefully, Draco. When you get there, you must find Professor Juniper and choose a starter pokémon. Your next step will become clear only after you have done this."

It was all happening so fast; he did not understand any of it. "Wait—" said Draco. "I never said I wanted to go!"

"It appears you are being summoned. Your own will not to wake up in your world and have to face the one you know as Lord Voldemort seems to have combined with the power of a legendary pokémon to create a rift in space-time, allowing you to cross dimensions.

"There is little time left, one way or another, we are almost there. Remember what you need to do, and remember what I told you."

"Hold on!" Draco cried. "Will I be able to get back home?"

"I believe you will find your way back when you are ready. Remember what I told you, Draco."

* * *

**1: A Familiar Face**

_Remember what I told you…_ The words rang in his ear when the bright morning sun woke him up. He remembered running from the Astronomy Tower with Snape. He remembered Dumbledore's offer of protection for him and his family, and how he had been about to accept when the other Death Eaters had arrived. He remembered lying in bed regretting that he had not lowered his wand sooner, and dreading having to face the Dark Lord after he had failed his task.

But that could not be right—the words were, 'Remember what I told you.' Where had he heard them? Was it a dream? He could not remember. Reluctantly, Draco opened his eyes.

He was not in his room. He crawled out of bed, and when he looked around, he saw that he was in a small attic bedroom, furnished with a desk in the corner (on which sat a strange rectangular object), a small table beside the bed, and a wardrobe and bookcase on the opposite wall. He did not have his wand.

He opened the wardrobe. There were no wizard robes; this was clearly the home of a Muggle. Still, Draco simply shrugged and dressed in black trousers and a navy blue jacket over a black t-shirt. He found an empty backpack next to the wardrobe, and in it he stuffed a second set of clothes and his pyjamas. He had just turned toward the stairs when, as an afterthought, he grabbed the black, white and red cap that was on the bedside table and put it on.

The main floor of the house was just as tiny as the attic bedroom and was not much more than a kitchen and dining room. He noticed a larger rectangular object similar to the one on his desk featured prominently, and for a brief moment he wondered what it was, but he had no genuine desire to find out. He set the backpack on a chair in the dining area and opened the kitchen cupboard.

A package of instant oatmeal caught his eye. Convinced that this was a Muggle house, he wondered what made it 'instant' and picked it up. _What the hell is a microwave?_ Draco thought with a puzzled expression after reading the instructions on the box. Disappointed, he put it back and searched for something easier. These Muggle things were really starting to annoy him. He finally settled on a bowl of Cocoa Puffs with something called 'Moomoo Milk' that tasted surprisingly better than the milk he was used to.

He did not understand why he was in this tiny Muggle house or how he had got there, but somehow he knew that it was safe. Wherever he was, he was far away from the Dark Lord, and no known magic could track him. But where was his mother? He had not meant to leave without her. He had not meant to leave at all, now that he thought about it. He had intended to face the Dark Lord and hope for mercy because he had seen no other option. But now… somehow Draco was safe and his mother was alone. He had to get back.

_Remember what I told you…_ What had the dream told him? Why couldn't he remember? All he knew was that he had to leave this house. He flung the backpack over his shoulder and stepped outside.

He was in a small rural town. The air was crisp—it was spring here too. The grass was green, the sky was blue, the leaves on the trees rustled in the wind, a flock of strange pigeon-like birds flew off as Draco approached them—it was a perfect day, as far as nature was concerned, at least.

He decided to take a walk. Perhaps more of the dream would come back to him with a bit of exploration. It was not like he had anything else to do anyway, and he did not want to stay in that Muggle house. It took him no more than twenty minutes to explore the entire minuscule town, and still he was just as confused as when he first woke up.

Disappointed, Draco leaned against the wooden fence on the edge of town and gazed out at the ocean skyline. He tried to think of something back home that it could remind of, but nothing came to mind. The unfamiliarity of this place made him sick. He wanted his mother, and Dark Lord or no Dark Lord, he wanted to go home.

He walked some more, and this time, he noticed that all the houses looked about the same, but there was one building that was different. It was the largest building in town, and there was a sign in front of it. Draco approached and read, 'Juniper Pokémon Lab.'

He suddenly felt as though this was where he needed to be, but he could not remember what he was supposed to do.

"Hello," said a voice behind him.

Startled, Draco turned around and discovered that the owner of this voice was a boy about his age with sleek black hair in a cropped cut and half-moon glasses. He was dressed like a Muggle, in a similar fashion as Draco.

"Are you here to get a pokémon too?" the boy asked.

Draco stared at him, puzzled for a moment, then he realised how stupid he must look, and simply answered, "Yes." If this was where he needed to be, and that boy was there to get a pokémon, then logically Draco must be there to get a pokémon as well, though he had no idea what a pokémon was.

"You live in that house in the middle of town, don't you?"

Draco wondered—_did_ he live in that house? He had certainly woke up there, and there had not been anyone else inside. "Er—yeah," he muttered.

"I thought so. It's strange that we've never met before. I'm Cheren, anyway," the boy said in an unnervingly friendly tone. Draco did not want to make friends with a Muggle.

He decided there was no harm in simply being polite—after all, he was lost in an unfamiliar place and beginning to feel, among other things, quite lonely. "I'm Draco," he said impassively.

"Should we go inside?"

The only things Draco could actually identify inside the lab were the desks, chairs, shelves, and books. There were more of those rectangular objects like the one on his desk in the Muggle house, and other odd-looking devices that he could not even begin to wonder about. He did not like this world at all.

Cheren led the way to the back, where a woman in a white lab coat sat at one of the desks.

"Hello, Cheren," said the woman. "You brought a friend with you?"

No, they were not _friends_, Draco thought. They had just met, and he was a _Muggle_.

"This is Draco. He's here to get a pokémon too," Cheren explained.

"Well Draco, I'm Professor Juniper," the woman said. "As I'm sure you both already know, you get to choose one of three different pokémon."

Draco had _had _it with these Muggles! He did not know _any _of this! Where were all the wizards? He wanted to leave, but not before he got a pokémon. He was absolutely sure that he needed to have a pokémon.

The professor stood up and opened a cardboard box on her desk. She removed three red and white spheres that bore a very unusual resemblance to the cap that Draco had put on that morning.

"They are—" She tossed one of the spheres into the air; it seemed to open, and in a burst of light, a green snake-like creature with a leaf on its tail appeared. "Snivy, a grass type."

Draco was barely listening. He gazed at the creature in wonder, with an expression on his face quite different from any he had shown all morning. All of his frustration seemed to slip away at the sight of the little green creature.

Professor Juniper tossed a second sphere into the air, and with another burst of light, a second creature that Draco barely glanced at for half a second appeared. "Tepig, a fire type."

The third and final sphere was tossed and revealed a creature that Draco did not even bother acknowledging, but the professor described as, "Oshawott, a water type."

"You can pick first if you want," said Cheren. "I don't mind."

Draco could not help but grin broadly when he said, "I don't want any pokémon except _this_ one," indicating the little green creature that gazed up at him with a perfect air of smugness.

"Well then, Snivy is yours," said Professor Juniper. She seemed about to put it back in the sphere, but Draco crouched down and lifted his new friend into his arms. Instinctively, he held out his wand hand, and the professor handed him the sphere. He pushed the button in the centre, trying it out, and it shrunk to a smaller size.

"I'll choose Tepig then," Cheren said.

Draco was not listening. He turned around and started to walk toward the door.

"Hold on a minute," said Professor Juniper. _What now?_ Draco thought. "You forgot your pokédex."

At that moment, Draco did not care what a pokédex was; he took the object without a word and slipped it into the pocket of his jacket.

He had spent the entire morning hating this world, but now Draco had found one thing that he really, really liked. If there was a Slytherin pokémon, Snivy was it, without a doubt. Seeing that face had felt like a little piece of Hogwarts—of _home_—had found him here. Draco definitely liked Snivy a lot.

He walked out of the lab with his pokémon on his shoulder, clutching the little ball in his right hand, and noticing that somehow, that little ball in that hand felt just as powerful as his wand.


	2. The Challenge

**2: The Challenge**

"Is this your first time seeing the ocean?" Draco found himself saying. He had walked back to the fence at the edge of town. "We have oceans where I'm from too. You know, you're the first pokémon I've ever seen."

Snivy looked smug. Draco had no idea why he was talking to it, but he did not know what else to do, and it did ease his loneliness.

"I don't like it here, Snivy. Everything's weird and I don't know what's going on." He paused to think for a moment. "I don't really want to go back home though. There's someone there who will probably kill me if I go back."

Snivy curled its snake-like body around his neck and shoulder as though it was cuddling up to him. An idea suddenly occurred to him. "If I do make it back… you'll come with me, won't you?"

He had not expected a response, but Snivy let out a short cry that almost sounded like a positive answer. Draco stared at the creature in shock. "Can you _understand_ me?" he said, bewildered. To his amazement, Snivy nodded its little green head and gave the same positive-sounding cry.

He supposed it should not have been very surprising, now that he thought about it—even post owls understood human speech, and he would never be able to forget that incident with the hippogriff in third year… but Snivy had understood everything he had said, and it was willing to stick by him without question. Draco smiled.

"Hey, Draco!" It was that annoying Muggle, Cheren again.

"What?" Draco spat.

"Are you just going to talk to your pokémon, or are you going to train it for battles?" Cheren asked in a condescending tone.

Draco took a moment to make sense of the question, then replied, "Of course I'm going to train it."

"Well, let's battle!" Now he was in trouble. Draco did not know the first thing about battling with a pokémon.

"You're really new at this, aren't you?" said Cheren. "I can tell."

"So what if I am? I'll battle you." He was not about to let some Muggle make him look stupid, that much was certain. How hard could it be, anyway?

"There's nothing wrong with that. I've never battled before either. But we've both got a pokémon now… You do know _how_ to battle at least, don't you?"

"Of course I know how, I'm not stupid!" He just wanted to get it over with so he could figure out what to do, why he was in this world.

"So?"

Draco was beginning to hate this Muggle. He reminded him of Potter when it came to Quidditch, and being the bloody 'Chosen One'—acting all high-and-mighty just because he knew more about pokémon. If that was not enough, he was starting to think of how much he would like to beat Potter at one of these pokémon battles.

"If you're _challenging _me…" Draco said. "I accept."

Cheren tossed his red and white ball into the air and out came the orange pokémon that resembled a small pig. "I'll let you have the first move," he said.

Draco did not like that idea; he had no clue what he was supposed to do. Snivy, however, eagerly jumped down from Draco's shoulder and faced the other pokémon.

"All right, Snivy, attack!" he commanded, trying his luck.

Cheren raised his eyebrows, as though he did not expect anything to happen, but amazingly, Snivy rammed into his pokémon, knocking it backwards.

Momentarily stunned, but quick to counteract, Cheren called out, "Tepig, use Tackle!"

It looked like the pig pokémon was about to ram into Snivy. Draco told it to jump, and Snivy pushed up off the ground with its tail and avoided the attack. "Now tackle!"

It was just like a duel, only he was not the one fighting. It was easy. Cheren might have known more about pokémon, but he did not have the battle instinct of a trained Death Eater. A trained Death Eater who could not even kill a defenceless old man—that was why he was here, but still—

"Did you just—"

Tepig was not moving.

"Win? Looks like it." He picked up his smug little pokémon and started to walk away. Cheren returned his Tepig to the ball and caught up with Draco.

"You know, most trainers keep them in their poké balls," he said.

_Poké ball_, Draco made a mental note of the term, making sure he remembered it. His response came automatically, "I don't think Snivy likes being confined inside a puny little ball."

Cheren looked amused, as though he thought the idea was typical of an ignorant novice, but Draco did not care. He liked his Snivy and wanted to keep it with him.

"Where are you going, anyway?" asked Cheren.

"Why do you care? I'm getting out of here. There's nothing left for me to do in this town."

"Well, I'm going to Striaton City—that's the closest gym. I'm going to get stronger, and eventually become the Champion. You're going to compete for gym badges, too, right?"

Draco blinked, confused. _Gym badges?_ "Yes, I am."

He walked ahead, faster, toward the road at the North end of town. He had no idea if it was the right way, but he was going to Striaton City, and he was going to get a gym badge, only because it seemed to be the next logical thing to do.


	3. Are You a Good Wizard, or a Bad Wizard?

**3: Are You a Good Wizard, or a Bad Wizard?**

The pedestrian path on Route 1 was quiet, tree-lined, and inhabited by a crazy-eyed pokémon that strongly resembled a chipmunk. Draco still did not know the proper way to battle, but Snivy was smart and tough, and getting very good at Tackle.

Before long, he had arrived in the next town. There were no dirt roads here, and significantly more people around. He was definitely out of the rural area, but a nearby sign revealed that this was Accumula Town—not Striaton City. Cheren had not mentioned anything about another town in between.

Draco did not like this. He could not go back to Nuvema Town; he had been attacked twice already by those chipmunk pokémon, and Snivy was looking too tired to battle anymore. Draco was again starting to wish he could go back home. He _hated_ being lost. He knew he was safe from the Dark Lord here, but how safe was he really if he could not walk down a seemingly harmless route without having strange creatures jump out at him every fifteen minutes, with nothing but his little Snivy for protection?

To top it all off, it was lunch time, he was hungry, and he had just realised that he had no money. He wished he had thought to pack food before leaving.

He turned onto the main street of the town, and at once, Draco noticed he was in front of a large building with a red roof. Directly above the double doors was a symbol like the one on the front of his hat, and the words, 'Pokémon Centre.'

He was about to decide to go in and find out exactly what a Pokémon Centre was when a blond girl exited, cradling a red-nosed Yorkshire terrier in her arms.

She walked clumsily, and nearly bumped into Draco, but rather than apologise, she said in an exasperated tone, "Oh, your Snivy! What happened to it?"

"Nothing _happened _to it," Draco replied. There was nothing wrong with his Snivy.

"You have to let it _rest_ after battling, you irresponsible trainer! Take it to the Pokémon Center!"

The girl did not give him an option; before he could respond, she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the building and up to the counter at the back.

"Nurse, look at this poor little pokémon!" said the girl desperately. "This kid doesn't know _what_ he's doing."

"Let me see," said the nurse behind the counter.

Unable to argue, Draco handed Snivy over to the nurse and watched as she examined it. He did not want to be an irresponsible trainer.

"Snivy looks all right," said the nurse. The blond girl looked somehow frustrated and relieved at the same time, if that was even possible. "It just needs some food and a bit of rest. It'll be good as new in no time."

The girl seemed to be studying him closely. Draco glared at her, annoyed, but then as if realising something, she asked, "Are you competing in the Unova League?"

Draco wondered—he _did_ intend to compete for gym badges—was that the same thing? "Yes."

"Have you registered yet?" asked the nurse.

"Registered?" said Draco, forgetting to hide his confusion.

"You have to register if you want to compete for badges; that's how they track you and check if you're qualified for tournaments, in case you lose your badges or something—didn't you know that?" said the annoying girl. She looked like the type of person who would lose her badges.

"Of course I knew," he said. "How do I register?"

"Just insert your pokédex into the scanner and I'll program it with your information," said the nurse.

_Scanner?_ He was starting to get a headache, and he blamed it on the Muggles and their endlessly confusing objects. He still did not know what the pokédex was for, but he took it out of his pocket and searched the counter top for anything he might be able to insert it into. By some miracle, he discovered the scanner immediately—or what he assumed was the scanner as the hole was exactly the same size and shape of his pokédex.

The nurse fiddled with one of those objects Draco kept seeing everywhere, and after a moment said, "Oh. Looks like you're already registered, Draco."

"I am?" When had he registered? He did not remember anything like that.

"It says you're from Nuvema Town, so Professor Juniper would have registered you."

"So _you're_ the trainer Cheren was talking about," the girl said with a grin. "He left for Striaton City just before you got here. He said you beat him in a pokémon battle."

"Yeah, I did."

"I'm Bianca. I'm from town too, but I'm not really a trainer yet. Will you have lunch with me? There's a really good cafe down the street. I'll buy."

He was about to refuse, but then he remembered that he had no money, and reluctantly accepted.

"You can leave Snivy here and pick it up later if you want," said the nurse.

Bianca returned her puppy pokémon to its poké ball and stuffed it inside the lime-green purse she carried. Draco hesitated. He did not trust these Muggles. He had never felt so out of place before in his life. It was only after two curious looks and the specific instruction to "put it in its poké ball" that he grudgingly obliged.

The cafe menu was microwaves and Moomoo Milk all over again, in the sense that Draco had little idea what most of it was. He gave up after a minute or so and simply ordered the same thing as Bianca: herb tea, and Old Gateau (apparently imported from some place called Sinnoh).

Draco could not wait to leave. The food was again surprisingly good, but the girl was air-headed enough to rival even Crabbe and Goyle, and he hated her for reminding him of what he had left behind. After he had put up with half an hour of her incessant giggling and talk of cute pokémon and battling, and how she wished her father would allow her to go on a journey, and that she was thinking of just leaving anyway, Bianca finally announced that she was going back home, and Draco was left to walk back to the Pokémon Centre alone.

He let Snivy out of the ball immediately, and then noticed that the street was a lot more crowded now than it had been when he had left for lunch.

"There's something going on in the plaza," Draco heard a man say. Out of curiosity, he followed. What he found drew his attention more than anything else in this world so far.

He pushed through to the front of the crowd that surrounded the plaza to get a better look. A group of people wearing hooded uniforms stood in a perfectly straight line on the grass. On the front of their uniforms was a logo resembling a shield with the letter P in the centre that looked almost as if it could represent a Hogwarts house. The most riveting feature of the scene, however, was a long-haired man who stood in front of the line. He was wearing robes of the like that Draco had only seen on Albus Dumbledore.

_Looks like I found the wizards... _he thought.

"My name is Ghetsis," the wizard-like man began. "I am here representing Team Plasma. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk to you about pokémon liberation."

He was sounding less and less like a wizard the further into his speech Draco listened, but the way he paced back and forth with such purpose and commanded the audience's undivided attention reminded Draco, with a horrible feeling and terror that seemed to come from a past life, of the way that the Dark Lord commanded the Death Eaters.

As for the things he was saying, Draco did not understand at all. The man—Ghetsis—described pokémon as 'living beings with unknown potential.' What sort of potential was he talking about?

The speech ended, and the strange-looking group of people—Team Plasma, Draco supposed—left in perfect formation. The crowd dispersed, muttering amongst each other, and leaving Draco more confused than ever. Then he noticed that one particular boy among the crowd was staring straight at him.

There was a recurring theme of black and white in the clothes he wore. His hair was long and pale green, strikingly similar to the man who had given the speech, but his eyes were much more innocent and childlike—but that look in his eyes—Draco knew _that_ look. He had only ever seen it in Snape, his Aunt Bellatrix when she was teaching him Occlumency, and those few times the Dark Lord had forced him to look into his eyes.

The boy then seemed to decide that staring was not enough, and he quickly approached.

"Your pokémon... Just now, it was saying..." Snivy had not made a sound since he had left the Pokémon Centre.

The look had vanished from the boy's eyes, and Draco wondered if it was ever really there to begin with, or if he had just imagined it.

"Can you hear it, too?" The boy spoke quickly, and his tone exhibited awkwardness.

Draco looked at Snivy, curled up on his shoulder, smug as usual, but the pokémon was still undeniably silent. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Oh. Then, you can't hear it, either... How sad. My name is N."

Draco still could not get past the idea that N looked an awful lot like a wizard, and as he scrutinised him, he began to feel something _else_... a sense of familiarity, like they had met before.

"Draco." He told him his name as an afterthought, almost forgetting about the conversation.

"Your Snivy looks young. You just became a trainer?"

"Yes, but I don't really understand what that means."

"Is that so? I'm a trainer, too, but I can't help wondering... Are pokémon really happy that way—confined in poké balls?" He glanced down at his right hand with a sad expression, and Draco noticed that he was holding a poké ball.

"Well, Draco, is it? Let me hear your pokémon's voice again!"

"What do you—"

"A battle!" Draco did not even have a choice this time. With a burst of light, a purple cat appeared out of N's poké ball, ready for battle, and before Draco had time to notice, Snivy had jumped from his shoulder and tackled it without waiting for a command.

"Scratch attack," N called out so quickly that the two words sounded like one.

"Dodge—" but there was no time to dodge—the cat was fast, and its claws were sharp. "Tackle again!"

"Dodge it." There _was _time to dodge; the cat pokémon was faster than Snivy. Before Draco could tell it to try again, N said, "It knows Vine Whip, doesn't it?"

"Er—yes," said Draco. It _had_ done something in a previous battle that he supposed might be called Vine Whip.

"Well?" Was N humouring him? Or was he sincerely trying to teach Draco the proper way to battle?

"Use Vine Whip," Draco commanded warily. Surprisingly, it proved to be more accurate and somewhat more effective than Tackle, but N responded with—

"Fury Swipes," which was like three Scratch attacks at once; Snivy had no chance to defend against it.

"Tackle!"

N looked pained as the attack hit, and for a moment Draco thought he might be about to give up, but he then whispered something, and the cat used Scratch, catching Draco off guard as he could not imagine how it could have heard.

Draco did not want to battle; he wanted to end it quickly. As if in response to how he felt, Snivy wrapped its vines around the cat pokémon, squeezing tightly, and the word 'Slam' came to mind, but he did not deem it necessary to give the command.

Snivy slammed the other pokémon against the ground, and seeing that it could no longer battle, N called it back to its poké ball.

Both boys stared at each other in silence for nearly a minute. N looked as though he had not expected to lose, but still Draco got the impression that he had let him win.

"As long as pokémon are confined in poké balls..." said N. "Pokémon will never become perfect beings. I have to change the world for pokémon, because they're my friends." He turned around and walked away without another word.

* * *

**Concerning Bianca:** If you've played Pokemon Black/White and/or know the story, in my version, Bianca's only pokémon is a Lillipup that her dad caught for her sixteenth birthday a few months before the start of this story. She wants to be a trainer, but her father is worried about her travelling all alone in the big scary world. She will eventually get Oshawott and leave anyway, and may turn up in later chapters, but she won't play a very big role. Draco will have a different female trainer plaguing his existence instead.


	4. A Little Help From Leaf

**4: A Little Help From Leaf**

It was late evening, and Draco strolled the lamp-lit streets of Striaton City, once again at a loss for what to do. Having no money was proving to be a problem—one that he would have to solve as soon as possible.

It was still his first day in this strange world, and he had already been attacked by wild puppies and chipmunks, walked more than he ever had in one day in his life, been forced into battling twice when he did not know what he was doing, and that _third_ battle... Draco did not want to think about that.

He _had_, however, finally managed to figure out how to work his pokédex during a break from travelling on Route 2, and discovered that if he pointed it at a pokémon and pressed the button in the centre, it gave him information about that pokémon's species. He now knew that the chipmunks were called Patrat, and the puppies were Lillipup.

Still, it was going to take a miracle for Draco just to survive in this place. He walked to the park in the West end of the city and sat down on the edge of a fountain, watching his surroundings, hoping for some sudden inspiration.

There was a child in shorts sitting on a nearby bench, feeding some sort of fruit to a Patrat, a girl wearing a white hat and pink skirt beside Draco, reading a magazine under a street lamp, then he watched a woman in a knee-length dress walked past him.

If the closest thing to wizards were those Team Plasma people, then Draco thought (even though his father would probably disown him if he knew) he would rather associate with Muggles, but he had not seen Cheren at all since he had left Nuvema Town.

The sky was darkening; it would soon be night—Draco needed a solution _now_. He looked at Snivy desperately, and would have asked if it had any ideas, but he did not want to be overheard discussing his problems with a pokémon, so he hoped that the pleading look in his eyes would communicate enough. Snivy slid down from Draco's shoulder and sneakily walked over to the girl sitting next to him and began cuddling up to her.

"Hey, little one," said the girl, her brown eyes shining as she petted Snivy on the head. "Yours?" she asked Draco.

"Yes," Draco replied.

The girl turned her attention back to her magazine, but then Snivy nudged her arm, and she looked back at Draco, more closely this time.

"Something wrong?" she asked. "You look like..."

"Like what?" Draco prompted.

"Just... down. Like you just lost to Palmer at the end of a 49-streak at the Battle Tower—believe me, I know the feeling—but considering where we are, I'm guessing it was only the Striaton Gym, which is pretty pathetic."

"Thanks, I feel a lot better now," said Draco.

"So you did, eh? You used Snivy against Pansear?"

"Yes."

"And got creamed?"

Draco's eyes narrowed. He did not want to answer. "Like you could do better," he sneered, a tiny amount of his old attitude returning.

"Do you want to battle me?" said the girl, sounding offended.

"No, I don't! Is _everyone_ in this world a pokémon trainer?" At the prospect of yet another challenge that day, he had lost what little control he had left on his emotions.

Thankfully, the girl did not understand precisely what he meant, and responded calmly, "Pretty much. So, is Snivy the only pokémon you have?"

"Yes."

"Well, if you want to win, you should catch another pokémon. One that isn't weak to fire."

"And how do you suppose I do that?" The words were out before he could stop them; he knew he was about to find out that everyone in this world knew how to catch a pokémon.

"You don't know how to catch a pokémon?" The look on her face told him he was right.

"No, I don't. Are you going to tell me?"

She folded her magazine and shoved it into her yellow messenger bag, then said, "If you're going to be a jerk about it, then I won't."

"I'll figure it out myself then."

"Don't be so proud," said the girl unexpectedly. "It's okay to ask for help when you need it." He was about to say that he did not need help, but then she changed the subject, "What's your name, anyway?"

"Draco." The girl smirked.

"I'm Leaf, the Kanto Champion."

_Champion?_ Draco thought. She could not have been more than a year older than he was. "_You're_ the Champion?"

"From Kanto. Not here. Here, I'm... nothing special. How disappointing." She did not sound disappointed.

"I'm going inside to get food," said Leaf, standing up suddenly. "If you want my help, your welcome to come with."

He did not have an option; Snivy climbed up onto Leaf's shoulder and gave Draco an expectant look. Leaf shrugged and waited for him.

"Where are we going?" Draco asked after a minute of walking.

"I'm staying at the Pokémon Centre. There's a Mart right next to it, so that's where _I'm_ going."

_Muggles... how irritating_. "Okay. So, how does one catch a pokémon, then?"

"You've got poké balls, right?"

"Just the one." Leaf looked at him as if she was fighting the urge to laugh.

"And that's for your Snivy? You'll need to buy a few more."

"I haven't got any money."

Leaf stopped dead and stared at him incredulously. She guessed his problem at once, "You can't be serious. How are you eating?"

Draco decided to answer honestly, "I've only been travelling since this morning. So far I've been lucky." Then he decided to forget about being entirely honest and employ Snivy's tactic, "A pretty girl bought me lunch. Not quite as pretty as you, of course."

Leaf was not buying. "So that's what you do, eh?" she said, stifling a laugh. "Get your Snivy to cuddle up to pretty girls and charm them into buying you dinner? Yeah, I definitely love a man who knows how to take care of himself."

"Well, what do you suppose I do, then? The only way I know of to make money is by winning gym battles, and _that_ doesn't seem to be working."

"Why don't you just give up and go home? Do you even _want_ to be a trainer?"

_If only it were that easy..._ Draco did not know how to answer. He could not go home, but he couldn't tell _her_ that. He couldn't tell anyone—who would believe him?

"Okay, I get it. You don't want to give up, but you're too proud to admit you need help."

"I don't—"

"You _do_. I'll buy you food, but after you win tomorrow, you're going to pay me back."

…

"You still haven't told me how to catch a pokémon," Draco said. He leaned against the bottom bunk of his bed.

"It's simple," said Leaf, sucking on the straw from a juice box. "You find a wild pokémon, battle it, then throw an empty poké ball at it. Doesn't always work though."

_Of course_, thought Draco. _Could have figured that out myself_. "And you seem to be under the impression that I'm going to win tomorrow when I still haven't got another pokémon, and have made it perfectly plain that I don't have any money to buy poké balls."

"Don't worry, Draco," she replied with a smirk. "You're going to win. I've got a plan."

"What's the plan?" asked Draco.

"I'll tell you in the morning."

"After breakfast?" He grinned innocently.

"During, I think."

"Great." He looked at Snivy, already curled up in a corner on his bed. "I'm going to sleep."

Leaf hung her hat on the bedpost of the bunk on the other side of the room, and began rummaging in her bag for her pyjamas. "Don't look," she said coyly to Draco, who had already removed his shirt.

"You're going to change right here?"

"So? _You_ don't seem to have a problem with that."

"But you're a—" He stopped himself, for some reason not wanting to offend her.

"Girl?"

"Yeah, it's completely different."

"I grew up with boys," Leaf said. "Just avert your eyes for two minutes."

When it was safe to look again, he noticed the five poké balls that she had taken off her belt and placed on the bedside table; two of them were different. One had a blue top with two red stripes, and the other was a deep red colour all over with a black contour along the opening.

"Why are those two different?" he asked only after realising that Leaf had noticed him staring at them.

"The blue one is a great ball; it's just a little more effective for catching pokémon," Leaf explained. "The other one is called a _cherish _ball, but there's really nothing special about it." Her face contorted slightly when she spoke the word 'cherish,' as though she had tasted something sour. He decided not to ask for further information.

Never in his life did it cross Draco's mind that he might spend an entire night in the company of a Muggle girl, and he could not help but wonder... were Muggles in his world like this too? He had always been taught that they were stupid, inferior, filthy, like animals even... Now he was here, and without a wand, he was just as helpless as any of _them_.

But he had pokémon. If pokémon could really do the things he had seen in the lobby of the Pokémon Centre, on that rectangular thing that Leaf called a TV... it was just like magic. Somehow he could not see a difference.

* * *

**A/N: **In case it isn't obvious, Leaf is the female player from Fire Red/Leaf Green. I based her personality loosely on what I know of her manga counterpart, which is not a lot since I don't read the manga.


	5. One Step Forward

**5: One Step Forward**

Nightmares — he had not anticipated those. Flashing green light. Dumbledore's lifeless body, falling from the tower. He couldn't wake up. Running, desperately running as fast as he could run. Gleaming red eyes, waiting for him. He tossed and turned throughout the night. A high, cruel laugh. He trembled in his sleep. Huge, bright green... eyes? A slight pressure on his stomach.

Wait — his eyes were open — this was _real_. "What the hell... _is_ this thing?" he involuntarily spoke aloud.

The thing inhaled and blew its body up like a balloon, seemingly offended by Draco's outburst. The only thing he could think of to compare it to was a very large, very round, purple rabbit with enormous eyes. It bounced off of him and ran hurriedly through the door, leaving Draco entirely confused as to what was going on.

He crawled out of bed and as he took in his surroundings, his memories of the previous day immediately flooded to the surface. _Pokémon, battling, gym badges, losing, lack of money, Leaf_... Realizing this was not going to be a relaxing day, he fell back against his pillow, closing his eyes.

Then he thought rationally, remembering the nightmares. _Could be worse._ He opened his eyes and his gaze shifted to the Dark Mark on his left forearm. It was still as clear as ever, but he had not felt it burn even slightly since he had been in this world. He wondered, out of nothing more than curiosity, if it would work to summon the Dark Lord, but he was not going to risk trying.

Still, he hoped that his parents were all right. Then he realized that he was alone. Where was Leaf — and Snivy? And what _was_ that thing that just woke him up and ran off?

Suddenly, he heard the lock click on the door, and hastily covered the Mark with his pajama sleeve. His question was answered as Leaf appeared, fully dressed, with her card key in one hand and Snivy in the other, and the giant-eyed purple rabbit pokémon peeking behind her.

"You okay?" she asked, sitting down on the bottom bunk of her bed.

"Fine. Why wouldn't I be?" said Draco somewhat unconvincingly.

"I told Wigglytuff to wake you. You looked like you were sick or something." She smiled mischievously. "But if you insist... get dressed, it's almost ten o'clock, and there's some kid in the lobby bragging about how he won a Trio Badge already — I want you to show him how it's done."

He got dressed, and figuring it might be a little impractical to have a pokémon on his shoulder during breakfast, he put Snivy in the poké ball and attached it to his belt.

"Oh, Draco." It was Cheren — just his luck. He stood near the stairs talking to Leaf when Draco came down. Draco nodded curtly but otherwise did not acknowledge him.

"Check it out," he proudly showed him a black case with eight slots; the first one was already filled.

"So, you won a badge?" said Draco, purposely sounding unimpressed. "How?"

"I caught a Purrloin on the way here," Cheren explained, "and spent all evening training it in the Dreamyard just outside the city. It was tough, but we won in the end."

Draco looked at the other boy awkwardly. It was the same frustrating feeling as the three seconds right at the end of a Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch game, the moment he realizes that Potter had yet again beaten him to the Snitch. Now this worthless Muggle had effectively beaten him to a gym badge, and he wanted to hex him into next week, but apart from the fact that he did not have his wand, hexing Cheren right then and there would be rather inappropriate, so Draco had no idea how to respond.

"Have you challenged the gym yet?" asked Cheren.

Draco did not answer. "Aren't we leaving?" he said to Leaf.

"Yeah, we should," she answered, then addressed Cheren smugly, "He's going to win today. You should come watch."

"I'd like to," he responded, "but I've got to get going. I'll see you around, Draco." He stopped half-way to the front doors and added as an afterthought, "Maybe after you get the Trio Badge, we'll battle again and see which one of us is stronger. Last time was a fluke — beginner's luck."

Draco once again did not respond, but he was thankful that Leaf did not point out that he had already lost at the Striaton Gym; he didn't like the idea of giving Cheren another reason to think that he was the better trainer.

"You've battled him before?" Her expression was curious.

"Yeah," answered Draco. "I won."

"You _won_?"

"Is it really that surprising? I'm not as pathetic as you think. What were you two talking about anyway?" He wasn't interested in their conversation; really, the question was only a subtle way to find out more about this world without having to reveal how much he didn't know.

"He said he saw me on TV a while ago," said Leaf, "on the Battle Frontier channel. For a second I thought he was going to ask for an autograph," her tone made it sound as though this was not an unusual or welcome situation, "but he just wanted some tips on strategy. Typical boy. A bit of a show off, but he seems to know his stuff."

She adjusted her hat and stepped toward the back of the Pokémon Center, to a row of devices that strongly resembled TVs, but Draco was certain they were something different. "I have to make a quick a phone call before we go," Leaf explained, "just to make sure everything's okay."

He watched closely as she inserted a few silver coins into the machine and pressed a combination of buttons. Less than a minute later, a portrait of an old man wearing a white lab coat suddenly appeared on the screen. Much like a magical portrait (and like the images on TV), Draco thought, the portrait moved, and then it spoke.

"Oh, Leaf, it's you," said the old man, sounding almost surprised.

"Hello, Professor Oak!" Leaf greeted cheerfully.

"How is everything in the Unova region?"

Leaf talked briefly of having three of the badges — just for fun — but enjoying the anonymity overall, while Draco stared perplexed at the image on the screen. He was sure that he'd seen Professor Oak before — somehow he was aware that the man knew all about pokémon, but he figured that must be common knowledge in this world.

"Anyway," Leaf was saying, "about that pokémon I brought with me... Do you think Red will care if I —"

"Honestly, Leaf," the professor interrupted. "I don't think Red is ever even going to know about it, no matter what you do with his pokémon."

"Still no change, then?" She sounding mildly disappointed.

"I've given up on that boy."

Seemingly from nowhere, Draco got the impression that Oak was a lot like Dumbledore, but thinking about Dumbledore made him feel sick to his stomach.

"So. Breakfast?" said Leaf after ending the phone call.

It was a little late for breakfast, but Draco was not complaining. The sky was clouded and the wind moderate as they stepped out onto the street. He promptly zipped up his jacket, but wished he had a cloak instead, though the girl seemed oddly unaffected by the cool breeze. They passed a group of young children, and stopped in front of a large building two blocks East of the Pokémon Center.

"This is the pokémon gym," said Draco.

"And, as you must know, it's also the best restaurant in town."

"Can't we just —" He did not want to go back inside without knowing why Leaf was so confident that he would win; there was no way he was going to risk losing to the same gym leader twice in a row. There was no point in even attempting to argue, however. He still had no money, and that meant no choice.

He grudgingly scheduled his rematch, and as soon as they had sat down and ordered their breakfast (Draco noticing that this menu had some normal food, although none of it contained any meat), Draco demanded, "What's the plan? How am I going to win?"

Leaf reached toward her belt and removed one of her poké balls. "With _this_ pokémon."

"I'm allowed to use someone else's pokémon?"

"Of course. It isn't really mine, though," said Leaf. "It used to be Red's. He caught it just before — well, anyway, he never trained it. I brought it here for a little vacation."

Draco narrowed his eyes, annoyed. "Who exactly is Red?" he said.

Leaf gave him a quizzical look that seemed to ask if he was serious. "You really haven't heard of him? Red is one of the top trainers in the world. He was the original Kanto Champion, if you don't count Blue, but no one really does count Blue. Not long after he claimed the title..."

She paused for a moment, looking as though she did not believe her own story, then sighed and continued, "He sort of lost his spirit, said no challenger would ever be worthy enough to battle him, and decided to climb a mountain and stand at the top for three years until Professor Oak finally sent some kid from Johto up there, and after four attempts, the kid actually beat him. We all thought he'd feel better and return to the Pokémon League after that, but I think it just made him worse. He still won't come down."

"Did you just say he's been standing at the top of a mountain for _three years_?"

"Well, going on five years now. We think his Pidgeot has been bringing him food."

Draco stared at her wordlessly for a moment, then finally asked, "What kind of pokémon is it?"

Leaf handed him the little ball and answered, "It's an Eevee."

He scanned the poké ball with his pokédex and studied the information. "If you use Dig," Leaf said after a moment, "you would have an advantage."

Draco considered this, but though he could not understand precisely why using Dig would give him an advantage against Pansear, he did not want to ask.

Then Cilan, the green-haired waiter who was also one of the three gym leaders interrupted as he delivered their food, "I'm sorry, I couldn't help overhearing your conversation." He gave Leaf an awkward smile. "You should know that a borrowed pokémon might not obey a trainer with no badges."

Leaf's eyes widened. "Oh man... that could be a problem... I completely forgot about _that_."

"How am I supposed to win if it won't even obey me?" said Draco, annoyed that she had overlooked such an obvious flaw in the plan.

"Hey, it's not the end of the world," Cilan comforted. "You don't know that. Each and every pokémon has their own unique personality. But even if your Eevee is obedient, it'll take more than a type advantage to beat Chili. Well, I wish you luck. Enjoy your meal."

_Luck..._ thought Draco. He had been lucky in battles so far... The first he had won without knowing what he was doing, he had managed to fend off countless wild pokémon, and he had defeated N. No, _that_ battle had nothing to do with luck — he never would have won if he had not taken N's advice — he was clearly the better trainer.

"Ready?" Leaf said once they had finished their breakfast.

"I guess I don't have much choice..." Draco replied reluctantly.

They walked to a room at the back of the restaurant where a large battlefield was housed, arriving with a few minutes to spare before the scheduled rematch. The same group of young girls that had been present at the last battle, who seemed to be Chili's personal fan club, were already in the audience, pompoms in hand, looking excited to watch their idol claim another easy victory.

Draco pressed the button to expand the poké ball and tossed it, figuring he might as well use the time to get acquainted with Eevee's unique personality. It seemed smaller and cuter than he had expected from the picture in the pokédex. Eevee gave him a strange glance. Leaf looked suspicious.

"Eevee!" she called, turning the fox pokémon's attention away from Draco. "Let's help Draco win, okay? You'll do what he says?" Eevee made a non-committal movement of its head.

It was time. "The Striation City gym battle between Chili, the gym leader—" the referee was interrupted by cheers from Chili's fan girls "—and Draco, the challenger from Nuvema Town will now begin. This will be a one-on-one pokémon battle with no substitutions."

"All right, Pansear!" Chili began, looking literally on fire in his excitement. "Let's start with Flamethrower!"

"Dig!" Draco called, but it was just as Cilan had warned him; Eevee turned away from Pansear and stared at Draco, looking bored.

Pansear's Flamethrower hit Eevee on the tail and it jumped up, crying out, then burrowed its way underground. Draco tensed, hoping desperately that it had decided to obey him.

A few seconds passed. Chili glanced around warily, but Eevee did not emerge. Draco realized disappointedly that it was simply hiding.

"Use Dig, Pansear!" Chili called, apparently realizing the same thing. Pansear's Dig quickly flushed Eevee out of hiding, then Chili ordered it to use Flamethrower again, and Draco decided to give the only command that he knew Eevee would obey, whether it wanted to or not.

"Run!" Eevee ran, and it dodged every one of Pansear's attacks. Draco began to relax, finally, and subconsciously he raised his right hand that was still holding Eevee's poké ball as though it was a wand.

Pansear's Flamethrower was getting more accurate; it singed Eevee's back paw and left ear. Draco, his intention focused, said simply, "Run. Faster."

Its speed seemed to double almost instantly at the sound of the command. Pansear was getting dizzy and Chili clenched his teeth in some kind of cross between excitement and frustration. Leaf was the only one who realized exactly what had happened. "Eevee can't use _Agility_! That's not even possible!"

Draco ignored her outburst; he was too focused on the battle. "_Now_, use Dig," he ordered calmly. Eevee burrowed underground.

"Use Work Up and get ready!" Chili called. Eevee burst out of the ground with perfect accuracy and blinding speed; Pansear had no time to counter.

Eevee showed no sign of slowing down, but Pansear recovered quickly. "Fury Swipes, _now_!" The attack hit.

Draco closed his eyes briefly, relaxing. The battle was already won; he knew. It would only take two more hits. "Eevee! Again!"

It was surreal; he didn't understand how he had done it. He left the gym five minutes later, the Trio Badge secured in the palm of his hand. He was vaguely aware of Leaf following him, but he did not look back. No one spoke. He entered the Pokémon Center and handed Eevee's poké ball to the nurse at the counter without saying a word. He realized now that he'd secured the victory the moment he stopped worrying and simply connected with his pokémon, but his inexperience had caused Eevee to take a lot of damage.

He sat down in the waiting room. Leaf stared at him blankly. Finally, she broke the silence, but all she could say was, "What — _are_ you?"

Draco smirked. "A wizard?" he tried.

Leaf laughed humorlessly. "Very funny."

He said nothing more. When the nurse returned with Eevee, fully healed, he held the ball awkwardly, half-way in between handing it back to Leaf and attaching it to his belt.

"Keep it," she said. "You might as well. It was never mine to begin with, and Red's not going to care..."

He attached the ball to his belt, and squeezed the badge in his hand. He had no idea what was so important about it, but if there were more gyms and more badges out there, he knew now that he could win them all easily. "Where's the next gym?" Draco asked, a determined expression on his face.

"Nacrene City," Leaf answered. "If we leave now, and take frequent breaks, we should get there in a day or two."

"_We_? I'm going alone. I don't need you."

The girl laughed. "How much money did you make?"

"Fifteen hundred dollars. That's enough, isn't it?" Truthfully, he had no idea if it was even close to enough.

"You still need to buy poké balls and supplies, remember?" Leaf looked at him mischievously. "Whatever's left after that might last you two days if you stretch it. _And_ you still owe me for last night and breakfast. I'm coming with you."

She didn't need to say it; he knew she had an ulterior motive — she wasn't only interested in helping him, but he needed her money. He let Snivy out of its poké ball, and the snake-like pokémon curled comfortably in his arms. "Let's go then."


	6. Three Steps Back

**6: Three Steps Back**

Though neither one of them mentioned it, it was quickly evident that the battle Draco had won with Eevee had caused a significant change in their already brief relationship. They walked mostly in silence, Leaf occasionally shooting Draco a suspicious glance, as though she thought he was deliberately hiding something. It was clear that she no longer considered him a novice who needed help with the simplest things.

Draco hated the silence; it made him think. He didn't even know how he should feel. He was scared for his family, but he was safe, and beginning to enjoy battling with pokémon. _They could be dead and I wouldn't even know..._ The thought made him feel guilty.

"Talk to me," he said when they had sat down on a bench near a daycare. Leaf gave him the same suspicious glance he was quickly getting used to.

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked.

"Anything. Just talk." The girl stayed silent. "_Please,_" he added desperately.

"How did you get Eevee to use an attack that Eevee can't normally learn?"

"What do you mean?" He looked at Eevee, innocently sniffing the wildflowers near the edge of the path.

"Eevee _can't_ learn Agility," Leaf insisted. "It's not possible."

"What makes you think _I_ had anything to do with it? I didn't tell it to use Agility, and if you recall, it wasn't even listening to me."

Leaf said nothing after that, but Draco knew she was right to be suspicious of him, even though he did not quite understand why himself. "Can Snivy use Slam?" he found himself asking after a moment.

"Snivy usually learns Slam after it evolves into Servine. You're not telling me that _your_ puny Snivy that you just got _yesterday_ already knows it?"

Draco gave her a sheepish grin. "Well, yeah." Snivy mimicked him with a smirk, looking up from the grass. "I don't know how it happened," he offered. "Do you think it'll evolve into Servine soon?"

Leaf shook her head. "I doubt it. It's weird though. There's something weird about you."

He had no response to this. He _had_ told her that he was a wizard, although she had clearly not taken him seriously. He wondered if his magic was somehow affecting his pokémon, but he could never explain something like that to a Muggle.

A _Muggle_, he couldn't stop thinking. What would his father think if he knew that Draco was willingly spending time and having friendly conversations with a Muggle? He hated feeling torn between his family's pure-blood ideals and... he wasn't even sure exactly what the second option was, but he really didn't mind Leaf's company, though he would never admit it. Draco was _not_ about to become a blood-traitor.

The trip to Nacrene City proved not at all uneventful. The first few hours were filled with an even mix of awkward silences and pressing questions. Leaf made him nervous. Then they met up with Cheren, who had apparently hung around in order to train his pokémon, though Draco suspected he had been taking his time purposely, hoping for a 'chance' encounter, as he had promptly challenged Draco to a battle.

The battle never happened. Draco accepted his challenge, of course, always willing to put the foolish Muggle in his place, but they had been immediately interrupted by Bianca, of all people, _and_ Team Plasma...

"Bianca?" Cheren questioned. "What are _you_ doing out here?"

"Hey! Where were those people headed?" the blond girl said, ignoring his question.

"That way," Cheren answered, pointing in the direction where they had just seen two people dressed like Team Plasma members running, "but... What are you doing all the way out here?"

"Oh, seriously! They run so fast!" Bianca exclaimed, still ignoring Cheren's question.

"If you two are finished wasting time," Leaf, who had been conversing with a little girl who had followed Bianca, interrupted, "This girl wants her pokémon back!"

"What?" said Cheren.

"You have to hear this! Those people stole this girl's pokémon!" Bianca finally explained.

A rush of heroism seemed to hit Cheren like a bomb ― or rather, like the switch in Potter's head that goes off the second his friends are in danger. He immediately sprang into action, instructing Bianca to stay with the little girl while he ran down the road in the direction where the Team Plasma members were headed.

Leaf rolled her eyes, unwilling to believe that he actually stood a chance by himself, and followed. Draco, figuring his only other option was to stay with Bianca and the crybaby, chose the lesser of the two evils and went with Leaf.

The path led to a nearby cave; Cheren had already rushed inside.

"This bothersome bunch doesn't really listen to reason," Cheren remarked once they had joined him.

"That child cannot use a pokémon to its full potential. Doesn't that make the pokémon sad?" said one of the Team Plasma members. "It's the same thing for all your pokémon, so hand them over to us now! Better yet... We'll just take them!"

Without warning, both Plasma members immediately sent two Patrats into battle, but Cheren seemed to have been waiting for them to pull just such a trick; his Tepig was out at the same time.

Draco stood aside, ignoring them, not wanting to bother getting involved, then ―

"Draco!" Cheren called. "Battle with me! We can beat them together!"

Draco gave him an awkward glance. "I don't want to fight them," he replied, then quickly added, "It isn't _my_ problem."

Cheren battled alone. Leaf glared at Draco dangerously, and could not stop herself from blurting out, "Why are you such a jerk?" Draco did not respond.

He didn't need to get involved anyway; although narrowly, with both his pokémon, Cheren managed to defeat the Plasma members.

"Wha...? How could we lose when we have right on our side?" the same Plasma member who had spoken up earlier exclaimed.

"Now return the pokémon to that girl!" Cheren demanded heroically.

"_You don't need to return it!" _someone yelled from farther back in the cave. Suddenly, they were surrounded, as four more people in the same uniform arrived and circled them.

"How troublesome," one of the new members said threateningly. "Not only do you fail to understand, but you actually got in our way, to boot. Well, there's only three of you and _four_ of us, and... it doesn't look like _he's_ going to be battling anymore—" he indicated Cheren and his tired-out pokémon "—if you still want to fight, we'll show you our combined power and teach you that we are right!"

In no time, they were surrounded by four more Patrats, and each one of them looked at least twice as strong as the last two combined.

"So, there are more of them..." Cheren muttered, realizing his mistake. "Why are pokémon robbers acting so self-righteous?" He wondered aloud, then turned to Draco and said coyly, "So, are you going to battle _now_?"

Snivy was curled around his neck, sound asleep; Eevee was comfortable in its poké ball. Draco replied simply, "No, I'm not." He didn't know if Team Plasma was right or not, but regardless, he had no desire to fight them, and did not see the need.

Leaf had been oddly silent ever since she had called Draco a jerk for his refusal to help the little Muggle girl, but then ― "That's _it_. _Now. I'm. Mad._"She was staring straight at the Plasma member who had so far done most of the talking, and when Draco looked down at her right hand, he saw that she was clutching the deep red cherish ball that she seemed to have a bad history with.

"_Go, Gyarados_!" She tossed the ball. The pokémon that emerged was the last thing Draco expected: a huge blue dragon with a long tail and white fin-like wings that made it appear as though it was swimming in mid air. It's whiskers were white and it's face was so menacing that Draco was sure it could never look anything but angry no matter how hard it tried. The fury in its expression was matched only by that of its trainer as she called out, "Use Dragon Rage!"

The Patrats didn't stand a chance. Dragon Rage was exactly what it sounded like; an all-out assault that defeated every one of them in a single hit. Team Plasma instantly called their pokémon back and took off running in the opposite direction, but not before handing over the stolen pokémon in fear.

Leaf calmed down the second her Gyarados was out of sight. "Well, that was easy," she said cheerfully.

"What a waste of time," Cheren added, and as they walked back to where they left Bianca with the little girl, the two of them continued to discuss how ridiculous they thought Team Plasma's ideals were. Draco stayed silent, once again feeling out of place. He didn't understand it at all, and was thankful that they did not ask for his opinion.

[][][][][][]

Nacrene City might as well have been called Warehouse City ― just about every building in town had originally been an abandoned warehouse, which the city was apparently famous for. Draco was out of money and back to borrowing from Leaf when they arrived around lunch time the following day.

"Let's get some food," she suggested excitedly.

"I'm going to the Pokémon Gym," Draco replied. Lunch could wait; he could not think of why, but he knew that he _needed_ to get to the Gym _immediately_.

"But I'm hungry!"

"_I don't care_." He would not have cared even if he hadn't been in such a hurry to get to the Pokémon Gym. She was only a Muggle, and he only needed her money.

"Are you forgetting who's paying for your lunch?" Leaf sneered.

"Are _you_ forgetting that I'm paying you back?" Draco retorted.

"You don't even know where it is..."

He deliberately avoided smirking at her astonishment when he navigated the streets with ease and led them on intuition alone, straight to one of the few buildings in town that was not an abandoned warehouse: a large ornate stone building with a prominent sign that stated, 'Nacrene City Museum and Pokémon Gym.'

The door opened suddenly as they approached, and then a long-haired trainer dressed in black and white appeared and stopped as he caught sight of Draco.

Draco froze for a short moment, then stepped forward, inches from the other boy, but they only stared at each other, both looking bewildered. N seemed to have eyes only for him, as though Leaf wasn't even there.

"I... want to see things no one can see," N said suddenly, in his usual awkward tone, his voice barely louder than a whisper so that only Draco could hear. "The ideals of pokémon inside poké balls." He spoke as though thinking aloud. "The truths of how trainers should be." He seemed unable to stop himself. "And a future where pokémon have become perfect..."

Then he asked suddenly, "Do you feel the same?"

Draco stepped back — he counted exactly three steps. There was something about this trainer that bothered him. He didn't know how to answer.

Then, seemingly of their own accord, his lips formed the word, "Yes."

"That so?" N said with a smirk. "I think my friends and I should test you to see if you can see this future, too."

He was ready this time — more than ready, he was eager. He sent out Snivy while N revealed a pigeon-like pokémon that he now knew was called Pidove.

"Vine Whip," Draco commanded, but it seemed to have little effect.

"Grass pokémon are _weak_ against flying types!" said Leaf. N looked over, finally noticing her presence.

"Your friend gives good advice," he remarked.

"I don't understand," Draco accidentally blurted out.

"It means you would be better off _not_ using Vine Whip this time," N answered, then — "Air Cutter!"

He was not prepared for this. After one hit, Snivy was already looking worn out, but Draco had to prove that he could beat N on his own. "Use Slam!"

"Dodge it." It tried to dodge, but the bird was too slow; the attack hit with even more power than it had in their last battle.

N had closed his eyes and looked like he wasn't even paying attention. "Again!" Draco called.

"I don't think so," N muttered without even looking. Pidove broke out of Snivy's vines and attacked at blinding speed, knocking the other pokémon backwards.

Draco smirked, as a wave of understanding finally hit him. _Snivy_, he thought calmly. _Let's use Leaf Tornado_. He didn't care if it was a grass type attack; all that mattered was that N would not be expecting it.

He opened his eyes instantly as a tornado of leaves surrounded his Pidove, and from that moment on, it was no longer just their pokémon fighting — it had become an intense battle of wills. Neither one spoke any commands, yet the pokémon still seemed to hear them perfectly, and thus it was impossible for each to tell what the other's next move might be.

Snivy was ultimately defeated with another Air Cutter, but it was not over; somehow N was aware that Draco had a second pokémon and was quick to suggest making the battle a two-on-two. Draco sent out Eevee at once and defeated Pidove with a single Quick Attack.

"You have gotten better," N commented. Draco smirked. "But you won't win."

He sent out a strange-looking pokémon that carried a long piece of lumber. It made Draco nervous. "Hold on," he said hesitantly, reaching for his pokédex, hoping N would give him the chance to find out what he was up against.

N frowned at the sight of the device, but still said dismissively, "Take your time."

'Timburr,' the pokédex said, 'fighting type.' Its attacks were Low Kick, Bide, Focus Energy, and Leer. He was still unsure about the mechanics of a pokémon's type, but the pokédex did not explain that, so he closed the device and resolved to win on intuition alone.

_Agility_. Despite what Leaf had said, Eevee proved that it could _still_ use Agility, but Timburr did not bother even to move for a long moment, until it countered with Low Kick.

The attack was super effective. _How is it so strong?_ Draco thought. _Wait... it can't be... Normal must be weak against fighting!_ That was a problem; he wouldn't be able to win with speed alone if it kept using Low Kick every time Eevee got too close. He didn't know why it was so important, but no matter what he did not want to lose against N.

_Sand-Attack!_ he tried desperately. Another Low Kick; it missed! Then Timburr had used Bide, but without the verbal command, Draco had not realized it and had attacked twice with Dig and Quick Attack — the damage was devastating.

"You're going to lose, Draco," N said quietly. "You should give up. I don't want to hurt your pokémon."

Draco stared into his eyes, then he seemed to freeze with fear, but it wasn't N or the battle; it was a memory that had flooded to the surface of his mind. _You will fail, Draco. Let me assist you_. Snape had known all along that he would fail. No matter how hard he tried to conceal his thoughts, the man didn't even need Legilimency to see it.

He couldn't kill Dumbledore because he was too weak to use the Killing Curse, and now he couldn't win because Eevee was _weak_ against fighting type pokémon. He was sick of it!

"No," he choked, dangerously close to tears. "I won't give up."

"Low Kick," N commanded calmly, his eyes closed.

"Quick Attack!" Draco countered. Eevee's attack hit first, but it was then promptly defeated. His face contorted in frustration; he had failed again.


	7. War and Ideals

**A/N:** I cut this chapter in half because the second part is really difficult to write and taking forever (it contains a scene that I'm really hesitant about, but it absolutely must happen), and I wanted to update _now_. Next chapter should be done within a week or so.

In response to your awesome reviews... _all will be revealed in time (yes, you will find out exactly what's going on in Draco's home world eventually)._

* * *

**7: War and Ideals**

"I don't understand you," N said as he called Timburr back to its poké ball. "You fight even when you know you can't win. Why? Do you even know what you're fighting for?"

Draco didn't even consider the question. He took a few steps forward, mostly to keep Leaf from seeing his face as he held back tears of frustration. "Why do you always want to fight me?" he said.

N closed the remaining distance between them. They glared at each other. There was a long silence, then finally N confessed, "I have never lost a battle to any other trainer." He spoke much slower than usual, and his voice was quiet. "And I won't lie... I know you would have won again if not for the type disadvantage."

"But you helped me," said Draco. "I wouldn't have won the first time if you hadn't told me —"

"I wanted to beat you fairly. It was obvious you did not know what you were doing, so I helped you to even the odds, and somehow you won."

Draco had no retort. N stared at him intensely, his green eyes cold as ice. "Draco, let's just go," Leaf called from somewhere behind him. There was worry in her voice; she seemed to think that one of them might start throwing punches at any second. N may have won this battle, but the war between them was clearly far from over.

Draco still did not respond. N stepped forward suddenly so that they now stood side-by-side, and muttered to himself, "I know what I need." He brushed past Draco and started to walk away, still muttering, "Power... Power enough to make anyone agree with me. I know what power I need. Zekrom! The legendary pokémon that, along with the hero, created the Unova region. It's my turn to become that hero — and you and I will be friends!"

"Who _was_ that creep?" Leaf asked after N had disappeared farther down the street.

"I'm not exactly sure. We've met before," was the best answer Draco could think of. They walked to the Pokémon Center, Leaf navigating this time because Draco was in a daze and could not remember in which direction it was.

They sat in the waiting room, as Draco had refused to leave for lunch without his pokémon; he had no desire for food anyway. The silence between them was deadly. He closed his eyes, feeling more homesick than ever before. He tried to will himself to remember how he had got to this place, but it was not working.

After no less than ten minutes, Leaf stood up and announced, "I'm going to get lunch. I'll bring you something." She left without waiting for a response.

_The Nacrene City gym leader uses normal type pokémon_, Draco thought. _Normal types are apparently weak against fighting. I haven't got a fighting type pokémon_.

He was trying _not_ to think about N, of course. It was in fact impossible to tell if Draco truly would have won had N not had an advantage. They had battled twice already and there was still no clear winner between them. The boy had all but declared war.

"I don't want to challenge the gym yet," Draco said quietly once Leaf had returned. He had already retrieved his pokémon from the nurse and let Snivy out of its ball. "I don't think they're strong enough. I want to train some more."

Leaf nodded in agreement. "We could go camping," she said lightly. "Get lost in the forest for a week or two."

It was Draco's turn to look suspicious, wondering why she would possibly want to spend a week or two alone in a forest with him. She spoke nonchalantly, but there was determination in her eyes. He knew immediately that she was going to convince him that a camping trip in Pinwheel Forest was the best idea one way or another.

"I suppose we could," Draco muttered.

There was at least one obvious benefit to camping out that Draco quickly discovered: his dreams were much less disturbing than they had been the first night when he had stayed at the Pokémon Center. He still revisited the Astronomy Tower and was haunted by flashes of green light, but that was far less ominous than seeing Voldemort.

They strayed off the path almost immediately upon entering Pinwheel Forest and set up camp in a small clearing near the river. Then Leaf suggested picking fruit, which Draco thought would be a simple matter if only he had a wand, but without magic... He looked confused for half a minute, not wanting to ask how exactly Muggles in the pokémon world accomplished such a task, then he discovered that pokémon seemed to have a variety of uses outside of battling, when Leaf called out —

"Kadabra! Use Confusion!" They had a pile of fruit within seconds. It was just like — no, it _was_ magic. It couldn't be anything else.

Then there was silence. The sun was slowly going down, and with it, Draco stopped thinking about the impending gym battle. He had no idea why Leaf was barely speaking to him this time — he was sure he hadn't done anything unusual during his last battle — but the sounds of nature made up for it. The cries of unseen wild pokémon, and the occasional chirping of birds — and there were real, _normal_ birds — was almost meditative.

He sat against a tree while Leaf gathered firewood as easily as she picked fruit, but this time she used her Venusaur's Razor Leaf and Vine Whip. It seemed that the only pokémon that she never let out of its poké ball was her Gyarados, and Draco still had not got around to asking her why she seemed so bitter about it...

"Neither of us have a pokémon that can light a fire," he remarked suddenly. "So what are you going to do?"

"I've got matches," she replied simply.

"Pokémon... can do just about anything, can't they?" Draco asked somewhat hesitantly.

"I suppose," Leaf answered with uncharacteristic formality. Draco did not think that his wealthy-pure-blood mannerisms were rubbing off on her, but still he said nothing.

It wasn't until the third evening, after he'd had plenty of time to think about everything he'd seen and heard, and form something close to an opinion, that he finally found the right words to phrase his unanswered questions.

"Why exactly do trainers keep pokémon in poké balls?" He was scratching Eevee's ears while he spoke.

"Because it's easier to carry them around that way," Leaf answered as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's fine to keep one or two out if they're small — I know Red's Pikachu absolutely _hates_ poké balls — but you can't carry an Onix on your shoulder, that would be insane."

Draco had no idea what kind of pokémon Onix was, but he still got the impression that she had completely missed his point.

"But I don't understand," he pressed on. "The whole idea of capturing pokémon, battling, and using them for every random purpose... isn't it like slavery?" _The way they obey every command_... he continued in his head, _they're just like house-elves... but pokémon aren't like house-elves at all. They're different._

Leaf looked as though she had just been slapped in the face. "You sound like those Team Plasma idiots," she replied.

Draco did not look satisfied. "Well, aside from the fact that they appear to be utter morons, I don't see any concrete reason why their ideas are wrong. Are you going to answer my question?"

"Pokémon are not slaves. People and pokémon work _together_. They _like_ battling, and most don't mind travelling in poké balls. Trainers care for them and help them reach their full potential, and they help us in return. You can't tell me you don't see that; I _know_ you do."

"Yeah... I suppose..." His mouth opened and closed a number of times, teetering on the edge of forming words he would normally never bother saying to a Muggle, then he muttered just barely loud enough for her to hear, "Thanks... for answering."


	8. What Happens in the Forest

**8: What Happens in the Forest**

The silence returned, and three nights later, so did the nightmares, but they were many times worse. There was no Dumbledore, no Astronomy Tower, but there was Voldemort and the distinctly ominous feeling that these were visions rather than normal dreams. Pain. Suffering. His family was in danger. Draco woke up screaming.

Unfortunately, this was not missed by the already-very-suspicious female Muggle beside him. Draco, however, was not paying attention. It was dark out still, and he was sweating and shaking uncontrollably in his sleeping bag. He couldn't get the visions out of his head.

He didn't even hear Leaf frantically trying to figure out what had happened until she resorted to slapping him across the face, saying in a rather panicky voice, "Damn it, Draco, what the hell is wrong?"

His eyes snapped open, but his surroundings were still no more than a blur. "Mother..." he whispered to no one in particular. "He has my mother. And there's nothing I can do!" _It's all my fault_...

He wasn't even aware of the tears streaming down his cheeks, then just barely, he felt arms close around his shoulders, and a hand rubbed his back soothingly. "Hey, it's okay," a soft voice crooned. "It was only a dream."

The words did not seem to register; it was as though he was under some kind of spell. "No... He'll kill her... I have to go back... But I don't know how..."

"Draco, look at me." She pulled him closer, his head moved somewhat of its own accord, and his gaze fell upon bright brown eyes, only inches away from his own. The brown eyes shifted just slightly downward to his lips, and before either of them fully comprehended what was happening, they had kissed.

Draco seemed to relax suddenly, then his hand found her waist, and he pushed her gently down. Their sleeping bags had been brushed aside already, so they lied on the grass, and he pressed his lips to hers again, more forcefully this time.

She pushed him away playfully, a smirk on her pale face, and muttered, "I'm sorry but I had to do _something_."

"I forgive you," Draco replied, still not fully conscious of what he was doing, although the shock of her kiss seemed to have broken the nightmare.

Then they heard amused laughter from behind _**—**_ eerie, inhuman laughter. They turned around slowly; Leaf was already reaching for the blue great ball that held Kadabra. Floating between two trees, there were two huge white eyes in the shape of half-circles, angled downward toward the center of a face blacker than the night. Beneath the eyes was a wide mouth with a fang on each side, and it smiled and laughed.

The creature bounced hauntingly up and down in its amusement; it seemed to be made out of gas. Draco gaped in shock, then Leaf stated clearly, "It's a Gastly," as though that explained everything.

"It must have been using Nightmare on you," she continued.

"Nightmare? But then _**—**_" The Gastly only laughed harder as Draco came to the realization that the dream _**—**_ the horrible visions _**—**_ had not been real at all. He looked to his pokémon; only one was awake. "Eevee, Quick Attack!"

The closest thing to Quick Attack that Eevee seemed willing to do, however, was quickly running to hide behind Leaf. "You can't battle it," she said, her hand closing around the great ball. "Normal type attacks don't work on ghost pokémon, and Dig won't do anything while it's floating."

Only once she finished speaking did the gaseous pokémon let out one final cackle before floating upward and disappearing into the trees.

"It's gone anyway. Just go back to sleep," said Leaf, turning around and grasping his hand tenderly.

But Draco was not willing to let his guard down so easily; she had no idea what kind of nightmares that thing was capable of causing. "What if it's just turned itself invisible? Ghost pokémon can do that, can't they?"

She opened her mouth to dismiss his fears, but stopped upon seeing the terrified look in his eyes, and called out Kadabra. "Miracle Eye." The pokémon's eyes seemed to glow, and it turned its head, looking around the area, but nothing happened. "Do you see Gastly anywhere?"

Kadabra shook its head, and Leaf returned it to its poké ball. "It's gone," she told Draco decisively.

He retired to his sleeping bag reluctantly, knowing there was no way he'd be able to fall asleep. Snivy, on the other hand, could sleep through anything, he thought with a small hint of envy. But soon he heard a sound like a soothing song in a foreign language. Looking around for the source, the last thing he saw before falling fast asleep was Leaf's Wigglytuff.


	9. The Wandmaker, the Girl, and the Hero

**9: The Wandmaker, the Girl, and the Hero**

_No, it didn't happen_, Draco thought minutes after waking up. It couldn't have happened. It was only a dream. She never kissed him. He never kissed her back. Just the thought of it made him shudder. But then... why were they holding hands (he jerked his away quickly upon this realization)? Why was Wigglytuff out of its poké ball?

_It happened_. There was no way to deny it. He could still taste a hint of her cherry chapstick on his lips. He had kissed a Muggle. He looked at her sleeping figure, and his face contorted in disgust.

He sat with his legs crossed on the grass, not caring that the early morning dew was soaking his pajamas, watching her sleep. She stirred, and he flinched slightly, hoping he was a safe distance away, suddenly terrified of accidentally touching her.

The grass rustled behind him, then he felt a little green head prop itself on his thigh. Snivy looked from Draco to Leaf, and back again, knowingly, with its trademark smirk.

"You weren't sleeping last night, were you?" Draco said quietly. Snivy _did_ always seem to be asleep at the most convenient times... he wondered how often it was just pretending.

It nudged him, but Draco shook his head. "It isn't right," he said. "It's... just plain wrong. Disgusting. My own father would Crucio me to hell and back if he knew. Then he'd disinherit and probably kill me, if my psychotic aunt doesn't get to me first."

He lifted Snivy in his arms and smiled, despite the seriousness of the situation, then sighed. "It doesn't matter, does it? It's not like they'll ever know." He almost laughed at the idea of finding his way back home and actually telling his father that he'd gotten a little too friendly with a Muggle while he was away.

Suddenly, he could almost hear a little voice in the back of his mind, fighting through his prejudice to be heard. _If it's so wrong, then why did you do it? Why are you staring at her now?_

_I wasn't thinking_, he tried to justify to himself. _I'm staring at her because she's a stupid, filthy Muggle._ Even as he thought them, however, he knew the words weren't true.

_No. It's wrong. It's just wrong!_ She slowly opened her eyes then, with no idea of the massive internal struggle the boy sitting two feet away from her sleeping bag was going through. The last thought that reached him before she caught his eye was, _But why?_

"Draco..." the girl murmured, still half asleep.

Then, something inside him snapped. He didn't care anymore. He didn't care that she was a Muggle, because in this world, blood purity didn't matter.

"Leaf," he whispered, placing Snivy on the grass, and moving closer.

He so rarely said her name that the sound of it seemed to wake her up completely, but he was already running a hand through her hair, and their faces were barely an inch from each other. Fully aware of what he was doing this time, and not caring in the slightest about what his family _**—**_ or _anyone __**—**_ might think, he kissed her.

"You need to wake up, I don't know how to cook," he said softly, then kissed her again.

"Don't," Leaf replied, pushing him away gently and crawling out of her sleeping bag.

He reached for her hand, but again she pushed him away. "I mean it, Draco. We can't."

He looked straight into her eyes with nothing but confusion on his face. He didn't understand at all. He'd just spent the past half-hour convincing himself that it was okay, and now she suddenly _**—**_ for no reason at all _**—**_ didn't want to anymore? Girls were confusing.

She offered no further explanation; instead she simply ordered him to avert his eyes so she could get dressed. He complied and used the time to put on his clothes as well, not caring if she watched as long as she did not see the Dark Mark, as was usual.

"Why can't we?" he then asked, giving her a pleading look. Her expression was hard. "Please, Leaf, I don't understand."

"Who's '_he_'?" she asked suddenly.

"What? Who?" said Draco, still as confused as ever.

Her expression softened almost imperceptibly as she explained, "When that Gastly attacked you with Nightmare, you said, 'He has my mother.' You said you had to 'go back.' Who did you mean by 'he'?"

His eyes widened. This was _bad_. He couldn't tell her about the Dark Lord. Even in the unlikely event that she believed him, she wouldn't want to associate with a Death Eater _**—**_ especially a would-be murderer.

"No one. It doesn't matter. It was just a dream."

"_That's_ why," said Leaf. "You won't trust me. I don't mind helping you, but if we're going to date, that's different. You can't keep secrets from me. I don't even know who you are."

He didn't like hearing the hurt in her voice, but all he could say was, "It's not that I don't trust you. You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Fine. I'll make breakfast. Get back to me if you ever change your mind about that."

When night fell, she was still not relenting, and Draco was still convinced that he could not tell her. He had spent the day by the river, training Snivy against the wild Goldeen and Basculin, and trying to get Eevee to like him enough for it to evolve into Espeon or Umbreon, considering he didn't have the means to evolve it into anything else.

Leaf kept him and the pokémon fed, but otherwise she barely talked at all, though he did notice her watching him with interest.

He was wary at night, scared to death of that Gastly coming back and deciding to torment him again, but he slept nightmare-free for once, and again woke up before her, just as the sun was rising over the trees. He again watched her sleep, mixed feelings running through his head.

He felt annoyed at her stubbornness, frustrated that he couldn't kiss her just because he couldn't tell her _everything_, disgusted with himself for wanting to kiss a Muggle (seventeen years of pure-blood pride was really hard to get over), scared that his father might somehow find out, and even mildly curious about whether there was any chance that she might actually believe him.

Leaf soon woke up, and they resumed their normal routine of getting dressed, eating breakfast, and barely talking. Their breakfast was interrupted by a rather small caterpillar-like pokémon. Determined to keep up his charade of not caring that Leaf was ignoring him, Draco took out his pokédex before she even had a chance to identify it.

'Wurmple,' it said. A bug type. "What's a Wurmple doing here?" Leaf inquired, apparently forgetting that she was still angry with him.

"Looks to me like it's simply crawling around on the grass," Draco answered nonchalantly, still studying the information in the pokédex.

"Get rid of it," Leaf told him.

"No way," said Draco, a smirk on his face. "I'm going to catch it. Eevee, Quick Attack!"

The Wurmple cried out in fear, but it was much too slow. As Draco slipped the pokédex back into his pocket and found an empty poké ball, the attack hit with surprising force. Wurmple froze, too stunned to move, and he threw the ball with perfect aim.

The ball rolled from side to side a number of times, as though the pokémon was trying to break out, then it stopped. Draco picked it up and immediately let his new Wurmple out. It was shaking fearfully, but it seemed to calm down as he cradled it gently in his arms.

"It's okay, little one," Draco comforted, smirking triumphantly. "You're mine now."

Leaf rolled her eyes and said, "_Why_ did you catch such a useless pokémon?"

"It's not useless," Draco replied. "It's cool."

"Of all the wild pokémon we've seen in this forest, you catch a caterpillar... You could have at least got a Venipede."

"Venipede are weird-looking, and their evolutionary forms are even weirder. Besides, this one is rare here."

Wurmple was, in actuality, quite useless, but it did grow fond of Draco quickly. After it had lost four battles in a row, Leaf started talking to him again, though she claimed it was only because they would run out of medicine and their camping trip would be over very soon if she did not instruct him on the _proper_ way to train weak pokémon (apparently she had once successfully trained an even weaker pokémon than a Wurmple, and Draco had a feeling that he knew which one it was, but he did not say).

With Leaf's advice, he started training both Wurmple and Eevee at the same time, mostly using Eevee's Helping Hand, and the evening on the day after he had caught it, Wurmple started to glow red, and before Draco even realized what was happening, it had evolved into Cascoon.

He wasn't very surprised after he'd seen it; he had looked at the picture in the pokédex already. He was glad, as he preferred Cascoon and Dustox over Silcoon and Beautifly. With its added defence, he could train Cascoon by itself, and within two more days, it evolved into Dustox.

Draco sighed in annoyance. Dustox was fully evolved after only a few days of effort, but Snivy was still Snivy, and Eevee was still determinedly Eevee. For some reason, this led him to thinking that he really, really wanted his wand — well, _any_ wand, truthfully.

If he could prove to Leaf that he was magical, then he could tell her, and she might believe him. She would have to. The problem was, there didn't seem to _be_ any wands in this world.

There _was_ wandless magic, however. It was common knowledge that a wand was not absolutely necessary; it simply made it easier for wizards to channel and control their magic. He wondered if he could make one. All he knew about wandmaking was that a magic wand consisted of three basic factors: the wood itself, the length of the wood, and the core. _His_ wand was made of hawthorn, ten inches long, with a core of unicorn hair. He knew immediately that he would not find hawthorn anywhere in Pinwheel Forest, and unicorns probably didn't exist at all in this world.

It was another early morning when these thoughts clouded his mind while he sat down on the grass with Snivy. "She is beautiful, for a Muggle," he whispered suddenly. "Better looking than Pansy, at least."

_Potter never has problems like this_, he thought, bitterly admitting that Ginny Weasley was also rather pretty. _Bloody hero..._

"What is the point of being a wizard if I can't do magic?" he then asked quietly. Snivy, of course, had no idea. Draco lifted the pokémon onto his shoulder and stood up. "Eevee, Dustox, come."

His decision was made; he was going to try to make a wand. If he failed he would be no worse off than he was already, but if he succeeded, then he could be a hero too, and the hero always gets the girl. This logic probably had a lot to do with the fact that he had not slept much the night before, or the wild mushrooms he'd eaten with dinner that Leaf swore were edible, or maybe it was just his teenage hormones, but regardless, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

He decided to stick with what he knew and chose the only plant he could find that even remotely resembled hawthorn: the leppa berry tree — a small pink-leaved tree with round red fruit. The closest thing to unicorn hair that was readily available was probably Eevee hair, from the collar.

He removed the bark from his stick, and carved it down to approximately ten inches with a pocket knife, wishing he had a tape measure, and muttering to Snivy, "You know, this would be a lot quicker if you would evolve and learn Leaf Blade."

All the while, Draco could not prevent himself from thinking that this had to be the most ridiculous idea he had ever come up with in his life, something that he would expect Loony Lovegood to think of, and there was no way it would work — but it was much too early in the morning to act on any logical thought.

With the hair inserted using Dustox's Confusion (he had not expected that to work, but somehow it did), it was time to test it. He held the wand in his hand (well, technically it wasn't a wand unless it worked, but he was being optimistic) for a few minutes, getting used to the feeling, then he pointed it at one of the berries on the tree.

"_Accio_!" he tried, but nothing happened, as expected. The wand felt foreign, he noticed. Assuming it really was a wand, it obviously hadn't chosen him. The specifications must have been off somewhere. "_Accio_!" he tried again, concentrating harder, watching the fruit closely for any sign of movement.

_It isn't fair_, he thought. _It has to work_. Deciding to try an easier spell, he plucked a leaf off the tree and set it on the grass, sitting down and holding the wand just a few inches above. "_Wingardium leviosa_!"

The leaf floated upward, following his wand movement; it was working! He cancelled the spell and leaned back on the grass, smirking in elation. After resting for a moment, he tried every harmless spell he could think of, but he was disappointed to find that the wand was unreliable at best, and usually completely useless. He did manage to summon one fruit, however.

"Where did you go?" Leaf asked nonchalantly when he returned to their little campsite. She was fully dressed, and swirling a pot of oatmeal.

"For a walk," Draco answered, eating his berry, which tasted remarkably similar to an apple. "I want to go back and get another gym badge today."

"All right. We'll go after breakfast."

He kept the wand in the pocket of his trousers, but he was still unsure whether he should tell her about it yet. He definitely could not mention the Dark Lord, and he was still certain that there was no way anyone would believe that he was from another world.

"I'm not trying to keep secrets from you," he said once they had finished eating. "There are just certain... personal things... from my past that I don't want to talk about. It wouldn't do any good, and I would rather just forget it." _At least until I find a way home_...

"Okay, I can understand that," she replied. "But that's not what bothers me. There's something about you... the way you battle, you don't even have to talk to your pokémon for them to understand you. That's not normal."

He smirked. "Leaf, I _told_ you how I do it. I'm a wizard. I can do magic." Truthfully he had no idea if being a wizard had anything to do with how he battled or communicated with pokémon, but it was better than no explanation at all.

She raised an eyebrow and stared at him blankly for a moment, then said in a very disbelieving tone, "You're serious, aren't you?"

He nodded, then as expected, she challenged, "Show me."

"Kiss me first." It was an enormous risk; he knew he had at most two tries to get the spell to work for her to believe him, but he had a strong feeling that it would be worth it.

She kissed him softly. He licked the cherry flavour off his bottom lip as they broke apart, feeling the magic flowing through him. He drew the wand, somehow absolutely certain that any spell he tried at that moment could not fail, and waving the wand in a strikingly precise circular motion, Draco muttered, "_Orchideous_."

A single white rose formed in the air, and Leaf caught it in her hand, looking stunned. "Do you believe me?" Draco said quietly.

Leaf smiled slightly. "Hmm... I think so. But only because I can't think of any other way you could have done that, or any possible reason why you would lie."

"I can live with that. Shall we go?" He stuck the wand back into his pocket and took her hand, feeling incredibly giddy from the morning's successes. Now that he had his magic back (however unreliable it was), it was _his _turn to become the hero, and _nothing_ was going to stand in his way. He already had the girl to prove it.


End file.
